chemistry
by TheStoryFiend
Summary: In which Reid is a cute TA and Derek is an obedient friend.
1. Chapter 1

"Hell yeah! First day of sophomore year!" Penelope shouted as she saw the rest of her friends gathered in the quad.

"No, don't call it sophomore year. Brings back bad memories of high school," Emily grumbled. Even at eight am she was still not a morning person.

"All right, then what should we call it? Because last I checked that's its name," the tall, dark-haired young man with a serious expression said.

The blonde next to him poked him in the side.

"Lighten up, Aaron," she said with a smile. "Or are we calling you Hotch? Since, you know, 'calling someone by their first name is unprofessional.'"

Hotch sighed. JJ was never going to let him live that down.

"How about we call it 'only-three-more-years-before-we-graduate year'?" said a voice from behind them.

"Derek Morgan! Look at you, you gorgeous hunk of man!" Penelope squealed, running to hug her best friend. "Doth mine eyes deceive me or did you get even more ripped over the summer?"

"Oh, I did a little bit of working out, yeah," he said offhandedly.

JJ snorted.

"You're the star quarterback. You're not fooling anyone, Derek," she said, giving him a hug as well. Emily also overcame her grumpiness to give Derek a hug, and Hotch gave him a fist-bump.

"So I hear the two of you came to your senses and finally started dating," he said as he settled down onto the grass, indicating JJ and Emily.

They both turned a bit pink and laced their fingers together.

"Yeah, I guess so," Emily said, leaning her head toward JJ.

"Oh, Lord, now you've really done it. They'll be all mushy for the next two hours," Hotch complained with a teasing look in his eyes.

"Oh, really? And you're sooooo above all this childish mushiness, right? Except when you're around that cute little thing - Beth?" Penelope teased back. Hotch turned red right up to his ears.

"Hotch! You have a girl? Man, you've been holding out on us!" Derek said, giving him a friendly shove.

The next half an hour or so before classes was spent by the five friends in catching up and teasing each other, until a passing stranger caused Penelope to gasp and shush her friends.

"Guys! Guys! That's him! Oh my god!" She was repeatedly hitting Derek on the shoulder and pointing to a painfully skinny boy walking past.

"Baby girl, slow down. Who's him? What's going on?" Derek took hold of her hands and turned her to face him.

"Okay. Okay," she said, taking a few breaths. "So you know that super bitchy junior-well, senior now-Erin Strauss? Well, she's apparently dating David Rossi, which yeah, surprised me too, so I went over to David to grill him about them and-"

"Penelope." Hotch laid a hand on her shoulder. "Pertinent information. Now."

"Right. Okay. Skinny boy who just walked past us is 1) a super genius here for like his third or fourth PhD, 2) _extremely_ attractive, and 3) a TA in Chemistry 201, which our own dear Derek Morgan will be taking, so _you have to scope him out!"_ She glared fiercely at him. Derek raised his hands in defeat.

"Okay, okay, I will, I promise," he said, trying to pacify her. "And what do you know - I have that very class in five minutes."

"Well, get moving! I want you to use every available minute!" Penelope chased him off.

"See you at lunch!" he called to the rest of his friends as they dispersed.

"If you don't him bring him with you, I don't want to see you!" Penelope called, only half-joking.

"Okay, okay! I got it," he said. "Yeesh."

But somewhere deep inside him, all Penelope's talk had made him curious. Maybe he should try to chat up this genius kid.


	2. Chapter 2

As promised, Derek arrived early to Chemistry 201 and scoped out a seat that would put him close to the TA. Said TA was sitting on a foldable chair near the podium, reading a book that looked to be about five thousand pages long and in what Derek suspected was Russian. Summoning all of the confidence and suavity he had, he greeted him.

"Hey, man, what's up? My name's Derek Morgan." Derek could have sworn that the guy flinched as he looked up at him. Up close, he looked about thirteen.

"Um, hello," he said nervously.

 _Man,_ Derek thought. _This guy has some serious confidence issues._

"You're the TA, right?" he continued anyways, holding out his hand for him to shake. "What's your name?"

"Spencer Reid." Spencer stared at Derek's outstretched hand as if it was a weapon of mass destruction. "I'm sorry, I don't shake hands. Studies show that handshakes transfer enormous amounts of bacteria and pathogens. It's actually safer to kiss." He paused and turned red as he realized what he said. "Um, or fist bump. That's probably more socially acceptable. I don't want to kiss you. I mean, I, um, I'm sure you're very nice-"

"Woah, woah, slow down," Derek said, laughing. "It's all good, kid. Let's start over." He cleared his throat. "Hi, my name is Derek Morgan. Nice to meet you." This time, he extended his fist. Spencer tentatively extended his own fist and gently brushed his knuckles against Derek's.

"Spencer Reid," he replied. "Nice to meet you, too." Derek grinned at him.

"Can I ask you a question?" Spencer asked. Derek shrugged.

"Shoot."

"Why did you call me 'kid'?"

Derek frowned slightly. "I don't know. It just kind of came out. You look pretty young."

"I'm eighteen. And I have a PhD." With any other person, Derek would have been pretty nervous at this point in the conversation, but Spencer didn't look angry. He just looked analytical, like he was trying to solve a puzzle.

"Sorry, man. If you don't like it, I will never call you that again," Derek promised.

"No, it's, um, it's okay." Spencer met his eyes and gave him a slight smile. Suddenly, Derek was struck by just how _beautiful_ this kid was.

But before his reflections could go any farther a flood of students entered the lab. Derek reluctantly went back to his seat and sat down, silently resolving to invite Spencer to lunch with his group after class.

Class went by ridiculously slowly, even for a two-hour period. Derek met his lab partner (Shawn? Shane?), got the syllabus, listened to the teacher drone on, willed the clock to move faster, and made a valiant effort not to stare at Spencer the whole time. It worked. Mostly. Sort of.

Finally, finally, class was over, and Derek took an extra-long time to pack up, hoping to get Spencer by himself. Once everyone had left, he approached him.

"Hey, Spencer." Spencer whipped around from where he was organizing lab equipment.

"Yes?"

"Do you have any plans for lunch? Because if you don't, you could totally come hang out with me and my friends." Derek rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, waiting for a response.

"Um. I'm so sorry, but, uh, I already have plans," Spencer said apologetically, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

"Oh. Well, in case you have a free lunch some other time, here's my number." Derek handed him a scrap of paper. "You can text me anytime. If you want."

"Thanks." Spencer smiled again, and Derek honestly thought he had never seen a more beautiful smile.

"Alright, I gotta run to my next class. See you around." Derek waved as he left. Spencer waved back.

Outside the classroom, Derek breathed a sigh of relief before checking his schedule.

"English. Great." He started to hurry off, but just then, his phone buzzed.

 _Hey. It's Spencer,_ the message read.

Derek broke out into a smile. "Penelope's gonna freak," he told himself. That was the whole reason he was this happy. It had absolutely nothing to do with how he may or may not feel about Spencer. Not even a little bit.


	3. Chapter 3

"Hey, Spence! What are you grinning about?" Alex Blake greeted her fellow grad student and long-time friend as he sat down next to her at their usual cafe.

"Nothing. I mean, I'm not grinning. Why would I be grinning?" Spencer's hand unconsciously drifted to his phone.

"Hmm. Based on the beginnings of a ramble I can see forming on your lips, I deduce that you've found someone in whom you might be romantically interested. Finally." Alex grinned triumphantly as he reddened.

"I wouldn't really call it that," he muttered.

"So you did meet someone! Who?" Her determined expression assured Spencer that he wasn't going to get out of this. But before he could start to explain himself to her, he saw something that shut him up.

"You're in luck, Alex. He's standing over by the door right now," Spencer said.

Alex's sharp gaze quickly picked out the muscular, dark-skinned guy at the door, accompanied by a blonde girl whose outfit was a blinding whirlwind of colors and patterns.

"Oh, my, he is _cute_ ," she said with a knowing smirk, turning back to her friend, who was now using the menu to shield himself from the world at large. "Aww, Spence, are you hiding? Come on, dear, don't be shy! Tell Aunt Alex the whole story so she can give you some sage relationship advice."

"Relationship advice from an ace person to another ace person? I'm sure that's going to be very helpful," he muttered, praying that Derek wouldn't see him and sinking even further behind his menu.

"I have a boyfriend!" Alex protested.

"Who you asked out by giving him a complex riddle to solve and who is _also_ ace. Somehow I think that type of courtship behaviour is not typical to the general population," he pointed out, risking a glance above the menu. "Oh no. Oh god. He's headed this way. Save me."

"Spencer!" Derek called out. Resigned to the fact that the menu simply would not save him any more, Spencer put it down and turned somewhat reluctantly to face Derek's direction.

"Hi, Derek," he said with a shy smile and a wave.

"I didn't realize that you came to this place! This is Penelope's favorite cafe on campus," Derek said, indicating the flamboyant blonde beside him.

"Hi!" she said enthusiastically, beaming at him. Something about her obvious enthusiasm for life and her unabashed individuality made Spencer feel a bit more relaxed.

Alex politely cleared her throat beside him.

"Oh, sorry. Penelope, Derek, this is my friend Alex Blake." Alex smiled warmly at them and stood to shake their hands. Derek laughed as she shook his.

"What's amusing?" she asked him curiously.

"Oh, well, it's not much, really. This morning when I met Spencer he wouldn't shake hands with me, so I was almost expecting you to be the same." Spencer got a shade redder at the reference to their awkward introduction.

"Not quite. I'm here for linguistics, not science," she said. "Why don't the two of you sit down with us? There's plenty of room." Conveniently enough, Derek chose the seat by Spencer.

"So how did you and Spencer meet?" Alex asked.

"He's the TA in my chemistry class. I got there early and we talked a bit. How about you? How did you two meet?"

"He was working on his math PhD when I was in college, and since I was kind of terrible at math he generously agreed to tutor me," Alex explained. She turned to Penelope. "What are you here for?"

"Computer science," she replied happily.

"I'm not sure why she felt the need to go to college at all, really, because this girl could probably teach her professors a thing or two," Derek said proudly. Penelope flung an arm around her friend.

"Aww, honey, you flatter me too much," she said.

They chatted happily amongst themselves for an hour or so, until the tolling of the old-fashioned clock tower reminded them that there were afternoon classes to take.

"It was so wonderful meeting you," Penelope said, giving Alex and Spencer each hugs. Surprisingly, Spencer didn't seem to mind.

"Yes, you too," Alex said, giving Derek another firm handshake.

"See you in chemistry," Derek said with a smile, giving Spencer a fist-bump.

"Yeah," he said with a tentative smile as they parted ways.

As they walked down the street toward the grad complex, Spencer felt Alex's eyes on him.

"What?" he asked finally, turning to meet her gaze.

"Nothing," she said with a small smile. "Derek is just very cute, that's all."

It suddenly struck Spencer how dangerous having a very single-minded, curious friend could be when one is involved in a potential romantic relationship.

 _Please, let there be no match-making,_ he plead to the universe. Somehow, he suspected that the answer wouldn't be an affirmative one.


End file.
